Best AI for Multilingual Education and Heritage Language Learning in 2026

Quick Answer: AI for multilingual education generates García translanguaging lesson designs using students' full linguistic repertoires as resources rather than barriers; Valdés heritage language learner diagnostic profiles distinguishing immigrant language maintenance, ethnic identification, and academic language development needs; Fishman's reversing language shift stage analysis for designing appropriate language revitalization curriculum; Baker and Wright's bilingual education policy framework for understanding and communicating about different program models; Hornberger continua of biliteracy assessment and curriculum planning tools; and heritage language literacy development sequences moving from oral proficiency to academic literacy. EduGenius (edugenius.app) supports multilingual and heritage language teachers in Grades K-9 with research-grounded, culturally affirming multilingual curriculum design.

Human beings are inherently multilingual. Throughout most of human history and in most of the world today, speaking more than one language is the norm rather than the exception. The monolingual ideal — the notion that a person, a family, a community, or a school should operate entirely in one language — is historically unusual and geographically limited. The vast majority of the world's children grow up in multilingual environments: speaking one language at home and another at school; switching between languages depending on the interlocutor; living with family members whose linguistic repertoires partially but not entirely overlap; inheriting ancestral languages that may be endangered or stigmatized.

Yet educational systems in many countries have historically been organized around the monolingual ideal — or, at best, around an additive model in which a dominant school language is taught first and other languages may be added later. This organization has produced several well-documented problems: heritage language attrition in immigrant communities (children lose their family language because school is conducted entirely in the dominant language); academic underperformance among students whose home language differs from the school language; suppression of indigenous languages; and the devaluing of multilingual competence as an educational asset.

The research on multilingual education — from psycholinguistics; from sociolinguistics; from bilingual education research; from indigenous language revitalization — has increasingly challenged the monolingual ideal and developed richer frameworks for understanding and developing human multilingual capacity. The frameworks discussed below represent the most influential contributions to contemporary multilingual education theory and practice.

Research Foundations of Multilingual Education

Ofelia García: Dynamic Bilingualism and Translanguaging

Ofelia García (CUNY Graduate Center), in Bilingual Education in the 21st Century: A Global Perspective (2009) and subsequent work with Li Wei, developed the most influential reconceptualization of bilingualism and bilingual education in the contemporary period:

Dynamic Bilingualism: García challenges the traditional model of bilingualism as the possession of two separate, parallel language systems — as if a bilingual person had two monolingual brains in one skull, each operating independently. García argues that this model is psycholinguistically inaccurate and pedagogically harmful. Instead, she proposes dynamic bilingualism: bilinguals have a single, integrated, complex linguistic repertoire that they deploy flexibly and strategically according to context, interlocutor, purpose, and environment. The linguistic resources of a bilingual person do not form two separate systems but one integrated system with features associated with different languages and social contexts.

Translanguaging: Building on the Welsh term coined by Cen Williams (Trawsieithu), García developed translanguaging as both a theoretical construct and a pedagogical practice. Translanguaging describes the practice of using multiple linguistic features from across one's full repertoire in a flexible, purposeful way — not mixing or switching between two systems, but deploying features from a unified multilingual system. In practice: a student who reads an English text and discusses it in Spanish with a classmate before writing a response in English is not "mixing languages" (as deficit-oriented views suggest) but strategically deploying different features of their unified linguistic repertoire for different purposes.

Translanguaging Pedagogy: García advocates for deliberate use of translanguaging in multilingual classrooms — creating planned spaces where students can use their full linguistic repertoire for learning. Translanguaging pedagogical strategies include: allowing students to discuss content in their home language before producing in the school language; providing bilingual texts (both languages on facing pages); allowing students to take notes in any language and translate to the school language for formal products; using home-language resources to build understanding of school-language concepts.

Trans-languaging as Resistance: García also frames translanguaging as a form of resistance against linguistic hierarchies that position some languages as valuable (dominant languages of schooling and commerce) and others as deficient (minority, heritage, indigenous languages). When schools create space for students' full linguistic repertoires, they are not only using effective pedagogy — they are enacting a form of linguistic justice that affirms the humanity of students whose languages have historically been excluded from the classroom.

Guadalupe Valdés: Heritage Language Learners

Guadalupe Valdés (Stanford University), in "Heritage Language Students: Profiles and Possibilities" (2001) and extensive subsequent work, developed the most influential typology and pedagogical framework for heritage language learners — one of the most practically important categories in contemporary multilingual education:

Heritage Language Learner Definition: Valdés defines heritage language learners (HLLs) as students who have been raised in homes where a language other than the dominant school language is spoken and who have some competence in that heritage language — even if that competence is incomplete, inconsistent, or primarily oral. HLLs are distinguished from foreign language learners (who are learning a new language with no prior exposure) and from dominant language learners (who speak the school language natively).

The Enormous Heterogeneity of HLLs: One of Valdés's most important contributions is her documentation of the enormous heterogeneity within the HLL population. Students who share a heritage language (Spanish; Mandarin; Arabic; Hausa; Punjabi) may range from near-native bilinguals with strong literacy in the heritage language; to students with strong oral skills but no literacy in the heritage language; to students who understand the heritage language passively but cannot speak it; to students who have almost no remaining competence in the heritage language but have a strong ethnic and cultural identification with the heritage community. These students have radically different starting points and radically different instructional needs — grouping them together in a "heritage language class" without diagnostic differentiation is educationally ineffective.

Three HLL Profiles: Valdés identifies three broadly distinguishable HLL profiles relevant to instructional planning:

1. Strong bilinguals: High proficiency in both the heritage language and the school language; may have literacy in the heritage language from family or community schooling; need instruction in academic and formal registers of the heritage language.
2. Oral bilinguals: Strong oral skills in the heritage language (often informal, home, and community registers) but limited or no heritage language literacy; strong school language skills; need literacy development in the heritage language and expansion of formal registers.
3. Passive bilinguals (or limited active bilinguals): Understand the heritage language but speak it rarely or with difficulty; school language is clearly dominant; strong ethnic identification but limited linguistic competence; need oral activation and literacy development simultaneously.

The Heritage Language Classroom Challenge: Valdés documents the challenges of the typical heritage language classroom: students at radically different proficiency levels; competing needs (some need oral development; others need academic literacy; others need formal register expansion); social tensions between students who consider themselves "real" speakers and those who feel insecure about their proficiency; and inadequate teacher training for differentiating among these profiles.

Toward Differentiated Heritage Language Instruction: Valdés advocates for diagnostic assessment that identifies each student's specific heritage language profile; for curriculum that addresses academic language development in the heritage language (not only oral conversation); and for instructional designs that honor and build on students' existing proficiency rather than treating all HLLs as beginners or as deficient speakers of a standard dialect.

Joshua Fishman: Reversing Language Shift

Joshua Fishman (1926-2015, Yeshiva University/Ferkauf Graduate School), in Reversing Language Shift: Theoretical and Empirical Foundations of Assistance to Threatened Languages (1991), developed the most influential framework for understanding and addressing the attrition and potential revitalization of minority and endangered languages:

Language Shift: Language shift is the process by which a community gradually transitions from using a minority language in everyday life to using a dominant language instead, across generations. Language shift is the normal outcome for immigrant languages in assimilationist societies and for indigenous languages in colonial and post-colonial contexts. Without deliberate intervention, language shift typically produces language death within three to four generations: the immigrant grandparent speaks only the heritage language; the first-generation child is bilingual; the second-generation grandchild speaks primarily the dominant language; the third-generation great-grandchild speaks only the dominant language.

The Graded Intergenerational Disruption Scale (GIDS): Fishman developed the GIDS — an 8-level scale measuring the degree of intergenerational disruption to a language, from Stage 8 (language used only by elderly adults; children are no longer acquiring it as a first language) to Stage 1 (language used in educational, governmental, and international contexts at the highest levels). The key insight of the GIDS is that language revitalization requires different strategies depending on where a language is on the scale — and that jumping to high-visibility activities (news broadcasts in the language; language learning apps; university courses) without addressing lower-level intergenerational transmission is ineffective.

Stage 6 as the Critical Fulcrum: Fishman argues that Stage 6 — the intergenerational use of the language in the home and community, with children acquiring the language naturally from parents and grandparents — is the most critical stage for language maintenance. Without natural intergenerational transmission (parents speaking the language to children in the home), no amount of classroom instruction, media production, or government policy can reverse language shift. Language revitalization efforts that neglect Stage 6 — that focus on schools and media while families continue to speak the dominant language at home — are unlikely to produce fluent speakers of the next generation.

Implications for Heritage Language Education: Fishman's framework has important implications for heritage language programs in schools. Schools can support heritage language maintenance but cannot replace family transmission. Heritage language programs are most effective when they: support and reinforce what is happening (or could happen) at home; involve parents and grandparents as linguistic resources; explicitly teach students about the history and significance of their heritage language; and build motivation for using the heritage language in everyday life rather than treating it purely as an academic subject.

Colin Baker and Wayne Wright: Foundations of Bilingual Education Policy

Colin Baker (Bangor University, Wales) and Wayne Wright (Purdue University), in Foundations of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism (now in its seventh edition, 2021), provide the most comprehensive scholarly treatment of bilingual education policy, practice, and research:

Types of Bilingual Education: Baker and Wright distinguish among multiple types of bilingual education programs that are commonly conflated but have significantly different goals and outcomes:

• Transitional bilingual education: Uses the minority language initially to support academic learning, with the goal of transitioning students to full-time instruction in the dominant language as quickly as possible. The minority language is a means to an end, not a goal in itself. Research shows this model tends to accelerate rather than prevent language shift.
• Maintenance/developmental bilingual education: Uses both languages throughout schooling, with the goal of developing and maintaining bilingualism. The minority language is valued as a long-term goal, not merely a transitional scaffold.
• Two-way/dual immersion bilingual education: Integrates minority-language-dominant and majority-language-dominant students in a classroom where both languages are used for instruction. Both groups develop bilingualism; minority-language students experience academic validation of their language; majority-language students develop bilingual competence.
• Heritage language programs: Classes or sessions specifically designed for students with a family connection to the heritage language, focusing on developing literacy and formal register in the heritage language.
• Indigenous language immersion: Full instruction in an indigenous language for students who are often dominant in the colonial language, aimed at revitalizing the indigenous language.

The Language Ecology: Baker and Wright use the concept of language ecology — the relationship between languages and the social environments in which they exist — to argue that bilingual education policy cannot be designed in isolation from the broader social, political, and economic contexts in which languages are embedded. A heritage language program in a school is only effective if it is supported by family use; community vitality; economic value of the language; and positive cultural attitudes toward the language.

Additive vs. Subtractive Bilingualism: Baker and Wright synthesize the fundamental distinction introduced by Lambert (1975): additive bilingualism (adding a second language without losing the first — the goal of maintenance and dual immersion programs) vs. subtractive bilingualism (acquiring the second language at the cost of the first — the typical outcome of transitional programs and assimilationist education). Research consistently shows that additive bilingualism produces cognitive advantages (including metalinguistic awareness; executive function benefits; cognitive flexibility) while subtractive bilingualism produces language shift without cognitive benefit.

Nancy Hornberger: Indigenous Language Revitalization and the Continua of Biliteracy

Nancy Hornberger (University of Pennsylvania), in "Creating Successful Learning Contexts for Bilingual Literacy" (Teachers College Record, 1989) and "Extending Enrichment Bilingual Education: Revisiting Typologies and Redirecting Policy" (1991), developed the continua of biliteracy — one of the most comprehensive frameworks for understanding the complexity of bilingual and multilingual literacy development:

The Continua of Biliteracy: Hornberger proposes that biliteracy — the ability to read and write in two or more languages — exists along multiple continua, not as a binary (literate/illiterate) or even a simple progression. Four nested continua describe different dimensions of biliteracy contexts, development, media, and content:

1. Contexts of biliteracy: micro to macro contexts; oral to literate traditions; monolingual to bilingual contexts. Biliteracy development is shaped by the context in which it occurs — a biliteracy context that is more macro, more literate-tradition-oriented, and more bilingual supports richer biliteracy development.
2. Development of biliteracy: reception to production; oral to written; L1 to L2 transfer. Biliteracy development along these continua is bidirectional and recursive, not linear.
3. Media of biliteracy: simultaneous exposure vs. successive; similar vs. dissimilar language structures; convergent vs. divergent scripts. Biliterate development is influenced by the relationship between the two languages' writing systems (similar alphabets vs. logographic vs. syllabic systems).
4. Content of biliteracy: minority vs. majority perspectives; vernacular vs. standard varieties; literary vs. non-literary texts. What literacy content is taught — whose stories, whose texts, whose standards — shapes the kind of biliteracy that develops.

Indigenous Language Revitalization: Hornberger's work has been particularly influential in indigenous language revitalization contexts, where creating biliteracy (literacy in the indigenous language) is a political as well as pedagogical act — reclaiming a form of expression that colonialism suppressed. Her continua framework has been applied to indigenous language literacy programs in Guatemala, Peru, Bolivia, South Africa, and many other contexts.

Li Wei: Translanguaging as Transformative Pedagogy

Li Wei (University College London), in "Moment Analysis and Translanguaging Space: Discursive Construction of Identities by Multilingual Chinese Youth in Britain" (Journal of Pragmatics, 2011) and extensive subsequent collaborative work with García, developed translanguaging as a transformative pedagogical practice for multilingual classrooms:

Translanguaging Moments: Li Wei introduced the concept of "translanguaging moments" — specific instances in classroom interaction where students spontaneously deploy multiple linguistic features from their repertoire — as the primary site for analyzing and validating multilingual students' authentic language practice. Rather than treating these moments as errors or as evidence of incomplete language learning, translanguaging research treats them as windows into the creative, strategic, and meaning-making capacities of multilingual speakers.

Translanguaging Space: Li Wei developed the concept of translanguaging space — the space that multilingual speakers create when they bring together their full linguistic and semiotic repertoire for sense-making and meaning-making. This space "merges and blurs the boundaries between the named languages, between the languages and other semiotic systems" (2011). In the classroom, creating translanguaging space means explicitly permitting and valuing students' full repertoire — not requiring that they stay within the named school language at all times.

Pedagogical Translanguaging vs. Spontaneous Translanguaging: Li Wei distinguishes between spontaneous translanguaging (students' natural, unplanned use of multiple linguistic features in interaction) and pedagogical translanguaging (deliberately designed instructional approaches that create planned spaces for translanguaging). Both are important: spontaneous translanguaging reveals students' actual linguistic practice and should be respected and built upon; pedagogical translanguaging ensures that the multilingual repertoire is systematically engaged in learning, not just informally.

AI Applications in Multilingual Education

Translanguaging Lesson Design

"Design a complete 4-week translanguaging unit for a Grade 5 dual-language classroom with Spanish-dominant and English-dominant students learning together — 'Nuestros Mundos / Our Worlds: A Translanguaging Community Study' — grounded in García's dynamic bilingualism framework and Li Wei's translanguaging pedagogy. This unit uses the students' unified multilingual repertoire as the primary resource for researching and communicating about their community. Week 1 — Community Inventory: Who Are We? In the first two days, students conduct a linguistic landscape survey of their classroom and school — photographing, noting, and categorizing all the languages visible in their environment (signs; books; classroom labels; posters; student work). They bring home surveys asking family members: 'What languages do you use? When? With whom?' and 'What languages were spoken in your family before your parents?' Students share findings in any language; class creates a visual map of the community's language ecology. Days 3-5: Discussion in any language: What did you discover? Which languages are most visible? Which are invisible? Why might some languages be visible and others hidden? Key texts provided in both English and Spanish — students can read in either or both languages. Week 2 — Research Phase: Community Interviews. Students form cross-linguistic research pairs (one more English-dominant; one more Spanish-dominant). Research question: 'What makes our community distinctive?' Students conduct interviews with three community members using any language — the interview can happen in English, Spanish, or a mix; students take notes in whichever language is most efficient. Student instruction: 'When you're interviewing, use whatever language works best for the conversation. Your notes can be in any language. Your job is to capture what the person is actually saying.' Week 3 — Processing and Analysis: Making Sense Together. Research pairs discuss their interview findings — in any language. They identify themes across their three interviews. They use a graphic organizer that has spaces for notes in 'Español / Spanish'; 'English / Inglés'; and 'Other languages / Otros idiomas.' Key cognitive task: synthesizing findings across three interviews into a single theme statement. Students think-pair-share their theme in any language; teacher captures ideas in both Spanish and English on the board, modelling translanguaging at the classroom level. Week 4 — Presentation and Product. Students create a final product — a community portrait in a medium of their choice (illustrated bilingual poster; short bilingual video; dual-language informational text; bilingual podcast episode) — that presents their research findings for a genuine audience (parent night; community organization; school newsletter). Product requirement: must include text or speech in at least two languages. Presentation requirement: students can present in any language; audience members can ask questions in any language. Culminating discussion: What did you learn about your community? What did you learn about language? Full unit with: community survey templates in English and Spanish; graphic organizer for bilingual research notes; bilingual product creation guide; rubric assessing content quality rather than language choice; reflection prompts on language, community, and identity."

Heritage Language Program Design

"Design a comprehensive Heritage Spanish Program for Grades 6-8 — 'Spanish: Tu Herencia, Tu Fuerza' — grounded in Valdés's heritage language learner typology, Fishman's reversing language shift model, and Baker and Wright's maintenance bilingual education framework. This program serves students with varying levels of heritage Spanish proficiency who attend a mainstream English-medium school. Program Goal: Develop students' Spanish academic literacy and formal register while affirming their existing Spanish competence and family/community connection to the language. Entry Assessment (Year 1, Week 1): Oral interview: can student carry on a 10-minute conversation in Spanish about a familiar topic? Reading: can student read a grade-appropriate Spanish text with basic comprehension? Writing: can student write a short paragraph in Spanish with minimally conventional spelling and grammar? Based on assessment, students are grouped for differentiated instruction: Group 1 (Heritage Bilinguals): Strong oral skills; some informal writing; need academic register and formal literacy development. Group 2 (Oral Bilinguals): Strong conversation; no writing; need literacy development alongside register expansion. Group 3 (Limited Active Bilinguals): Limited production; some comprehension; need oral activation, literacy development, and identity-affirming engagement. Grade 6 Curriculum — Oral and Family Heritage: Unit 1: My Spanish Story. Oral history project: students interview a Spanish-dominant family member. Preparation: develop interview questions in class; practice conducting the interview; transcribe a 2-minute excerpt from the audio recording. Assessment: quality of the oral history product and the student's reflection on the process. Unit 2: Traditional Stories and Family Narratives. Read and discuss traditional Spanish-language folk stories from students' regions of heritage origin (México; Puerto Rico; Dominican Republic; Central America; Spain; other). Compare to stories students know from family. Students write their own version of a traditional story type. Unit 3: My Neighborhood, My Words. Analyze the Spanish of the local community — signage; menus; local media. How does community Spanish differ from textbook Spanish? Is this a problem? (García: no — all varieties are legitimate; the goal is to expand repertoire to include formal registers without devaluing community Spanish.) Grade 7 Curriculum — Written Language Development: Unit 1: Reading Heritage Texts. Extended reading in Spanish-language literature appropriate to student age — novels; short stories; graphic novels; journalism — from diverse Spanish-speaking traditions. Daily reading journals in Spanish: summary; reaction; connection; question. Unit 2: Writing with Purpose. Systematic development of Spanish writing in multiple genres: narrative (personal story); expository (how-to; informational); argumentative (opinion). Each genre taught through mentor texts by Spanish-speaking authors; student drafting and revision. Unit 3: Media and Current Events in Spanish. Regular engagement with Spanish-language news and media. Students summarize, react to, and discuss current events from Spanish-language sources. Develops both reading comprehension and vocabulary in academic and journalistic registers. Grade 8 Curriculum — Academic and Community Language: Unit 1: Research and Writing in Spanish. Extended research project — students choose a topic of personal significance (a historical event from their heritage country; a social issue; a cultural tradition) and produce a 5-7 page research report in Spanish. Develops advanced academic Spanish writing skills. Unit 2: Spanish in Professional Contexts. Explore the professional uses of Spanish — healthcare; legal; education; business; media. What specific vocabulary and register does each context require? Guest speakers (community professionals) in Spanish. Unit 3: Language Advocacy Project. Students research an issue related to the status or use of Spanish in their community — bilingual signage; Spanish-medium schooling options; heritage language loss among youth — and develop an advocacy position in Spanish. Fishman's framework as analytical tool: where is community Spanish on the GIDS scale? What would it take to move up? Full program with: differentiated materials for three HLL groups; parent/family engagement guide in Spanish and English; assessment rubrics for all products; teacher professional development on HLL pedagogy; community resource list."

Indigenous Language Revitalization Curriculum

"Design an indigenous language revitalization curriculum framework for a Grade K-3 program — 'Voices of Our Ancestors: An Indigenous Language Nest Program' — grounded in Fishman's reversing language shift Stage 6 priorities, Hornberger's continua of biliteracy, and successful international indigenous language nest models (Te Kōhanga Reo in Aotearoa New Zealand; Punana Leo in Hawai'i; Gaelscoileanna in Ireland). Context: This framework is designed for adaptation to specific indigenous language contexts — the specific language, community, and degree of language vitality will vary, but the framework principles and structure apply across contexts. Core Philosophy: The language nest model immerses young children (age 3-8) in the indigenous language during the school day, with fluent elder speakers as primary language models. The goal is not merely to teach the language as a subject but to create a functional language environment — one of the few daily environments where the language lives and grows — in a context where family transmission has been interrupted. Staffing Principle: Elder speakers are the instructional heart of the language nest. All classroom assistants, paraprofessionals, and extended staff speak the language fluently. The classroom teacher may not be a fully fluent speaker but is a committed language learner and creates the environment for elder immersion. Elder protocol: Elders are cultural and linguistic authorities; teachers are logistical coordinators. This inversion of typical school authority structures is deliberate and essential. The 'Language Only' Environment: During language nest hours, only the indigenous language is used — by elders, staff, and (as they develop capacity) students. This is the most important structural feature: children cannot develop a functional relationship to the language if it is always mixed with or dominated by the colonial/school language. Physical Environment: All labels, books, art, and visual materials are in the indigenous language. Photographs of community elders and cultural events are prominently displayed. Traditional art, tools, clothing, and cultural objects are present and used in daily activities. Curriculum Organizing Principles: Daily Activities: traditional daily activities are conducted in the language — morning greeting; food preparation; traditional games; storytelling; singing; craft-making. The language is encountered as a living part of daily life, not as an academic subject. Cultural Content Priority: curriculum content centers on indigenous knowledge systems — traditional ecology; seasonal knowledge; traditional mathematics; oral literature; relationship practices — that are most naturally transmitted through the indigenous language. The language and the knowledge are inseparable. Hornberger's Continua Application: literacy development moves from oral tradition to written forms as students are ready; from community/home variety to more formal ceremonial varieties; from informal contexts to more structured contexts. Writing in the indigenous language is developed — because literacy in the indigenous language is itself a form of revitalization. Family Engagement: Weekly family language nights: elders teach family members alongside students. Monthly family cultural activities conducted in the language. Family language learning resources — recordings of common phrases; bilingual vocabulary books; family activity guides. Fishman's Stage 6 awareness: explicitly engaging families in the vision of intergenerational language transmission — that the goal is eventually for parents to speak the language to their children at home. Assessment: No formal summative language testing in early years — assessment is observational, based on elder judgment of students' developing comfort and competence in the language. Annual celebration: students demonstrate their learning to community in a public cultural event conducted in the language. Full framework with: daily schedule template; elder speaker partnership agreement; family engagement protocol; environmental design checklist; community stakeholder engagement guide; reference list of successful indigenous language nest programs internationally."

Classroom Scenario: Mele's Multilingual Class in Niue

Mele Fono-Tokelau is a primary school teacher at Niue High School's feeder primary in Alofi, the capital of Niue — a small island nation in the South Pacific Ocean, located approximately 2,400 kilometers northeast of New Zealand, 480 kilometers east of Tonga, and 670 kilometers southeast of Samoa. Niue is one of the world's largest coral islands and one of the world's smallest nations by population: the official population of the island is approximately 1,500-1,600 people, though many more Niueans live in New Zealand (approximately 20,000-25,000 Niueans in New Zealand, compared to the island's permanent population — making New Zealand home to more Niueans than Niue itself).

Niue's Unique Status: Niue is a self-governing state in free association with New Zealand — meaning it governs itself fully but relies on New Zealand for defense and foreign affairs assistance, and Niueans are New Zealand citizens. This free association status, along with Niue's small population and extreme geographic isolation (Niue is one of the most remote settled islands on Earth), creates a distinctive demographic and linguistic situation.

Niue's Language Situation: Niuean (also called Vagahau Niue) is the indigenous Polynesian language of Niue, belonging to the Polynesian subgroup of the Austronesian language family. Niuean is closely related to Tongan and more distantly to Hawaiian, Māori, and Samoan. The language is spoken by approximately 1,600 speakers on the island and several thousand in New Zealand. Niuean is endangered: the ongoing emigration of Niueans to New Zealand (primarily to Auckland) has been so significant that the population of Niue has declined by over 60% since the late 20th century. On the island, English is widely used — especially in education, government, and media — and the language shift from Niuean to English has been substantial.

Niue's Educational Context: The school system in Niue uses English as the primary medium of instruction at secondary level, with Niuean taught as a subject. At primary level, there are efforts to integrate more Niuean-medium instruction, particularly in early grades, in recognition of the language's endangered status and the community's commitment to its maintenance. Mele's class includes students from families that speak varying amounts of Niuean at home (some families speak Niuean consistently; others primarily English; others mix the two) and students who have recently arrived from New Zealand with limited or no Niuean but English as a dominant language.

Mele's Multilingual Approach: Mele uses García's translanguaging framework to value students' full linguistic repertoires — English and Niuean together, not as competing systems but as a unified resource for learning. EduGenius (edugenius.app) helps Mele design translanguaging activities that use both Niuean and English for different purposes; generate oral history projects in which elder community members share Niuean knowledge in the language; create bilingual books that students author in both languages; and develop heritage language units on Niuean traditional knowledge systems (navigation; fishing; horticulture; oral literature) that are most naturally transmitted through the Niuean language — applying Hornberger's principle that indigenous language literacy and indigenous knowledge transmission are inseparable.

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